Education, health care, police among spectrum of reductions proposed by the governor

ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson rolled out his plan to cut $3 billion from this year's budget through a package that includes reductions to education, health care and a long list of other programs ranging from social services and transportation to law enforcement.

"This is a very painful plan, but we will share the burden," Paterson said in a news conference Thursday at the state Capitol. The governor said he would bring lawmakers back in special session Oct. 27 to consider the plan, parts of which require legislative approval.

The two-year blueprint would cut a total of $5 billion without the imposition of new taxes or layoffs of state workers.

The governor's legislative timetable drew a chilly response from leading Senate Democrats, who expressed frustration Paterson hadn't announced it earlier. Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson, who is traveling in China with other legislators, said in a letter to the governor that his conference would consider the plan only after public hearings, which wouldn't conclude until well after Oct. 27.

"The scope of the budget deficit is still unclear," said Brooklyn's Sen. Carl Kruger, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement. Kruger told the Daily News that the Senate was "not going to succumb to (Paterson's) hysteria nor are we necessarily going to accept his forecasting."

In an interview with the Times Union, Paterson signaled that he's ready for a fight with the Legislature. "This is just avoidant conduct — this is Albany activity," Paterson said in reaction to Kruger's comments. "It's calling people names while coming up with no solutions."

Paterson praised the response from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who after the plan's release announced fast-tracked meetings with his conference and a series of hearings.

In his news conference, the governor suggested that those who didn't recognize the depths of New York's budget woes were deluding themselves.

"The situation is dire," said Paterson, who recalled that many lawmakers doubted him last summer when he warned of fiscal trouble on the horizon. "They've all had to eat their words, but they never admitted they were wrong."

If approved by lawmakers, Paterson's package of cuts would mark the first midyear school aid reductions since the 1990-91 fiscal year.

Paterson wants to cut $587 million in education spending — $480 million in local aid; $62 million from higher education (including $26.2 million from the state's Tuition Assistance Program); and another $45 million from miscellaneous education cuts.

In health care, Paterson is proposing $471 million in cuts, including $287 million in Medicaid and another $184 for health and mental hygiene costs.

Other cuts would fall on a variety of programs, from school-based dental clinics and adult literacy programs to initiatives for cervical cancer vaccination, tuberculosis prevention and HIV outreach.

Welfare fraud detection, cemeteries and downtown revitalization would be cut, as would funds for narcotics prosecutors.

Paterson said the school cuts shouldn't drive up property taxes if districts dip into the reserve funds they are required to maintain.

But others cast doubt, noting that the cuts run through the current budget year ending March 31. The fiscal year for schools, however, runs through June.

From that standpoint, there are $686 million in school cuts, said Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education, a union-affiliated group that advocates for school spending. "It's a bigger slice of the budget pie," said Easton.

He was among the panoply of lobbyists, spokesmen and interest groups — representing not only school and health care lobbies but environmentalists and public employees — who quickly condemned the plan.

The plan "would significantly undercut the state's momentum toward a clean energy future," added a statement from the League of Conservation Voters, referring to a proposal which would take money from carbon emissions fees.

Rick Karlin covers education. A reformed ski bum, he has previously covered the Capitol, consumer affairs and features at the Times Union.

Before working at the Times Union, he worked at newspapers in Maine, where he covered the state Capitol, and Colorado, where he covered the energy industry and natural resource issues as well as government beats.